Pointless Views: Was Warren An Arse?
November 15, 2019 by crew
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Dare I say…… 1st??
Pointy views… yeah!
Regarding Blitz Bowl: Ok, what I just found out is… “Blitz Bowl wird bei ausgewählten unabhängigen Einzelhändlern in den USA und Deutschland erhältlich sein.” “Blitz Bowl will be available at selected independent retailers in the USA and Germany.” This is GW again at the game of “throw it at the wall and lets see what sticks”. They did the same with the magazine “Warhammer 40.000 Conquest”. It was due to release in Germany but weeks after the initial release for Germany passed (without anything being delivered) they just said “nope, will not do” and then cancelled every order. And as… Read more »
I haven’t seen Conquest magazine anywhere in my area either.
So yeah … region exclusives suck, but a last minute denial has got to be the worst.
It wasn’t “last minute”… it was “some time later”
that is just mean …
Disappointing there isn’t a podcast version so I can download and listen at work
Thank you
I shall watch later. Though I can’t remember what Warren was meant to have been an arse about this week
Great conversation.
To anyone worried about these guys tearing each other apart during the break I got a sneak peak into the inner workings of OTT and they were all very cheery and happy so no harm done. @avernos is a lovely singer btw.
Oh and shameless plug for Boris’ master: check out the web store. He has great minis.
https://www.heresyminiatures.com/shop/
Also, he sacrifices blood to the blood good regularly. (Just follow him on twitter and see the pictures of his cut fingers every now and them when he sculpts XD)
Integrity @warzan … Have you heard the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore treatise on that subject?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUQJcssN8Vw
love these two 🙂
My favourite has to be “Lengths”, but then again I used to work in a bureaucratic organisation.
@warzan If you didn’t think Blitz Bowl it wasn’t newsworthy enough, then at editorial control should have dismissed it. It should never have gotten past the editor, who should either have ignored it or bottom drawed it, pushing it to the bottom of the news draw. Lots of things get dumped on my desk as an editor and I have to decide what is newsworthy for my readership. Currently Brexit tends to be top of the news pile, along with the election because of the effect both will have on my readership. Others items come along and I decide that… Read more »
im not sure how far you have watched, we do discus this 🙂
adding comments as I watch lol
So question one is..are these bits of information news? Yes I think they are. Question two – are these worthy news? That deeps on what value each person puts on them, whether it is of personal worth to the individual or worthy to a community (or “the” community) Do we look at each as a separate bit of news or as part of a bigger picture; part of the story of each of the organisations involved? For Barnes and Noble it is part of their diversification from what they used to be know for – mainly books, magazines, gifts and… Read more »
very good points!
To me the most important question at this moment is “why”….
Why is someone doing this or not doing that…
The others – “how”, “when”, “what”, “where”, “who’ – still good but “why”
Any parent, and I’m not one so can only go by portrayals on screen, must get sick of that question.
this looks like a hard episode to edit. i can see and like the direction of this type of show is heading but it does need some work.
im struggling to follow the discussion. i will have to think about this and possible ask some questions later to help me consider my pointless view.
yep this format is likely to evolve rapidly as we try to find better ways.
@avernos came up with a ‘panel’ type approach we can try which sounds promising.
As I watched the show I wondered, as you had to explain to each person that you brought in where you were at in the discussion, if this format would be better as a “LIVE” show.
Could the show be broadcast on discord itself, so that those going to be joining the show know where you are “at” – of course being recorded at the same time.
Yes thats exactly what we thought after recording. @avernos thought up an idea that we think will work much better for this. We’ll keep plugging away at this because I think when we nail it the end result could have legs 🙂
The reason I put “I promise not to swear” is because I swear like a trooper. Indeed I spent most of my time on air thinking… “don’t swear, Robert”, “don’t swear, Robert”, “don’t call North Americans a bunch of c@nts” etc, etc. I love Ryan too much to make him edit my swears because I am not-a-c@nt.
we really appreciated the effort it took from this total cult 😉
*for your international friends it’s worth pointing out that the c word is oddly a ‘loose’ term of endearment in our society lol
I think a watch list of ‘what makes us n.irish/Irish’ with episodes of FTed, Give My Head peace etc would give a lot of insight into what makes us tick lol
N.Ireland – where brutal banter is the sincerest form of endearment lol
This is true. I have far better things to call North Americans. It is like when I explained why I call English people “kippers” to my former English boss. I am glad he got the joke.
It’s the same here in Australia. A very common “Greeting” is “Scarn Cult”. Women really really don’t like it but the men of Australia are very fast and loose with the word.
We call American’s Seppo’s (Septic Tank = Yank).
Maybe they should record the Show on a Monday if they’re going to have Rob and a bunch of Australian’s on? Give poor Ryan a chance to edit it all.
You are a good bean!
I’m blushing!
One thing I had meant to say was why GW and Barnes & Noble have to partner this way, and why we won’t see GW in supermarkets. But being on the show was a bit like making love to a women for the first time. You do you research, plan it out, spend time trying to stop yourself swearing… but when you get into heat of the moment, you forget all your special moves and spend the next day full of regrets. Anyway, it is simply a way to get around competition laws – rather than Warren’s comparison argument. By… Read more »
From my small exposure to the culture and commerce in the US, I think a lot of their big retailers want “exclusives” as a way of differentiating themselves from the competition.
And of course there will be differences in competition legislation in the US.
But they are all based on the same principles and any case simply comes down to which group of economists have the more convincing argument or have have rigged the data more convincingly.
Barnes Noble issue I personaly could care less, I have enough trouble sitting through all the GW noise on this channel as it is, let alone some GW derivative being sold on the other side of the world. And though I get the cynasism over Small World meets World of Warcraft, after thinking about it I actualy think it was a good idea. I have Small World, it is a great game, but it is a bit scattered thematicaly. It kind of reminds of playing Kings and Things 20-30 years ago and having to invent justifications for the ‘Things’ being… Read more »
@warzan I think its an issue of opinion delivery, not really of the opinion, you sounded a bit odd, more fast to reply. For example here I am not sure you really meant “I would rather have a bad sellout game than a good sellout game” because a good game is always a good game and a good game/ product is always a good thing. I can reason that you meant “I would rather it be bad so they stop reskinning games for quick cash” though I think it is unlikely “I would rather they had a good original game… Read more »
I (speaking from a work perspective – industry watcher kind of thing) would rather they took a risk to show their gaming credentials and have poor sales, than go lowest common denominator and have a successful re skin. Now the above is a very difficult statement to make and stand over as I wish no ill will on any company and I wish all ‘risks’ were rewarded, although I know that’s not the case. Its always strange to be asked would you support them doing something great and have a shite outcome. My response is failure is always a noble… Read more »
I understand, I think you want to say, that while you respect industry companies decisions in looking at their bottom line and taking the safe route, you would rather have the huge companies in the industry invest in industry pushing design and publishing rather than taking the safe route.
While I understand and respect this opinion, unfortunately big companies became big usually for this reason, innovation usually comes from the small and new who burn bright and crash fast and then the industry collectively picks up the remains and refines them.
A great show this week, and I’m glad @warzan was able to really articulate what it was that was bothering him. Though, I agreed much more with @avernos
At the end of the day, the decision of worth is one for the editorial team.
I’m a little disappointed I wasn’t able to be involved, but you guys covered it pretty well.
I’m so sorry we missed you and @horus500 – I was bitter disappointed about that, but we are exploring the format and have other options to try which I think will help 🙂
Yeah I’m sorry I missed the chance too as sadly I totally disagreed with you Warren. About everything. The way you objected to the news was too much. By the tenth interruption I think most of us were over it. I realise there’s a ‘drama’ played out in the telling, but news that should have lasted a minute lasted 10 because of the interruptions. Was it news worthy? Of course it was. Firstly, lets face the facts, the viewers/listeners want to know what the Big Boys in town are doing. People want to know what GW are doing because it’s… Read more »
When I watched the front stage show I very much felt I was watching something that should have taken place off camera before recording – it was an editorial meeting rather than a news segment. And the tone of it was awkward, I actually felt sorry and uncomfortable for Ben. The actual topic was fine as a discussion point, but the framing of it felt wrong. The Weekender isn’t the appropriate venue. Maybe XLBS, certainly Pointless Views, but not the show that goes out to the least community engaged audience. To sum up though, I’m fine with these products existing… Read more »
I agree with this entirely. It was uncomfortable to watch, and it came across like Warren was throwing Ben under the bus on camera and berating the choices made for the news. If he didn’t want it on the show, there are more diplomatic ways to approach it that didn’t make for an awkward segment that never seemed to end ….not to mention that it could have been edited out before posting to YouTube.
That being said, Warren’s opinions are dead-on correct in this case and I agree with them wholeheartedly, they shouldn’t have been on the news.
I think what we need to take away from this is that the picture of grumpy @warzan is amazing and he should use it as his display picture
@robert is officially famous
Don’t think this will generate the same number of calls as when I was on Crimewatch….
It was a lovely picture on Crimewatch though. You really suited the black and white filter #blessed
I ponder if this is a cultural view from Europe, which differs from the United States. Especially at Christmas time, many toys are exclusive to a particular store; try to buy some of the new video games. From my view this is more a B&N marketing strategy to compete against their competitors than any strategy of GW. With this view, I can’t blame GW as they are simply making a buck (quid) within a domestic USA marketing strategy.
I think for GW it is to extend their reach across the US. Back in the 2000s GW had a big number of stores across the US, a big Bunker store, a multiday Games Day, their own edition of White Dwarf and a magazine that was sent out with online orders – I still have a few of these. Then GW retrenched, got rid of the different WD editions, played around with whether their own stores should sell the Black Library items, cut the personalities out of WD, then added them back… I don’t know, but I’d guess that the… Read more »
I see your point. GW isn’t loosing anything on this deal and anything that reinforces their market share in the US can only be viewed by them as a positive direction to take.
This US gamer didn’t prefer any of the periods for FoW. I just wished they had stayed in one period as long as the period historically lasted or longer. Having to build a “new” army every 2-6 months caused me to just drop and purge the game entirely.
Correct @irondragon6 – in many ways I am of course making a mountain out a mole hill – but that’s my prerogative right 😉 lol
#itsallbreadandcircuses
Of course, one point I was hoping to get across is opinion comes from ones point of view (and the experience from norms that surround then). Opinions are never wrong, seldom right, but never wrong. I love everything about your channel, although work fronds on employees joining a cult. ?
Petty World Of Warcraft: I don’t think that Asmodee is a big company in the same way that Blizzard Entertainment and Games Workshop are big companies. It seems to me that Blizzard Entertainment and Games Workshop are empires, whereas Asmodee is a monarchia. That is to say that, although Asmodee’s head office might make decisions (on behalf of their private equity owners) as to what’s worth funding and investing in and coordinate distribution, Asmodee is otherwise a collection of smaller companies that have not been integrated into a single coherent operational whole. So i’d put it to you all that… Read more »
Happy too lol
“(Reuters) – Asmodee Group, the French maker of board game Catan and distributor of Pokemon cards in parts of Europe, is exploring a sale that could value it at more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.”
Now it all comes down to weather you consider that a big company or not?
I don’t think it does come down to whether someone considers Asmodee a big company or not because it could be valued at 1.5 billion Euros, or at least i’m not sure it comes down to that for the reason i gave above and which i’ll expand upon here. Let’s say that Games Workshop (for example) and Asmodee were valued at the same amount. Let’s say it were 1.5 billion euros each. I think it might be a mistake to therefore equate Games Workshop and Asmodee as being two similar companies with the same kind of capacity. This is because,… Read more »
Ok…I am commenting as I watch PV.
I do not feel @Warzan is being elitist, he has damn good points. Blitz Bowl should NOT be exclusive to the 3 shops. They are the ones being gatekeepers with a stupid ‘exclusive’.
I will say that I love the idea of a smaller faster Blitz Bowl. A travel version basically, something to whip out at lunch. Basically a small skirmish version. I think GW made a big misstep with this game.
I do see why @warzan got a wee bit miffed on this. But!and its only a little but! I had seen the news item, was vaguely interested, mainly as I really was only glancing at and originally just thought it was Blood Bowl…. think it was about half way through the article before penny dropped, and it was only in the show that the exclusive bit hit me. So as a piece of news to me it was up there with the Aussie Football results, its news but not as I care to know about it. So if you hadn’t… Read more »
I think I understand where you’re coming from @warzan with the little game. One great gaming company teams up with a world renown IP and that’s all they come up with? It’s not that what they produced shouldn’t exist, it’s the loss of potential and effort on their part. I can’t remember if it was Gerry or Justin who said it, but a World of Warcraft dungeon crawler on the tabletop sounds like a no-brainer to me. The dungeons and raids are already designed in the video game. Imagine playing them out on the table. Playing WoW without the grind,… Read more »
From a gaming PoV I don’t have much interest in Blitz Bowl: I prefer Dreadball; would love a crack at Guild Ball; have a Blood Bowl team ready to paint (and an eye on the ogre team because ogres). The 40k thing I genuinely would be interested in. An easy way to get into 40k without going all out for a 1750 point army (is that the usual points value these days?). It’s no biggie that I can’t get one, I’m not short of models to paint or games to play. GW have also done this in the past, simpler… Read more »
I think the dangerous thing in bringing up the commercialization of the film industry in this discussion is that it sounds like you’re trying to say that unless you’re a reboot or a big franchise you don’t get made. While it may look like that it’s actually quite nieve and I’d argue that the same is correct for the board game industry. Independent cinema still gets funding, the ‘smaller’ guys still get funding in film and they still do commercially well. We equally have more independent game producers getting funded now than we ever have in the history of the… Read more »